Marquam Building, Romanesque Revival structure in Portland, United States

The Marquam Building is an eight-story office structure in Portland featuring thick stone walls and rounded arches framing the windows. The facade combines brick with terracotta details that give the exterior its distinctive appearance.

Philip Augustus Marquam bought the corner lot at SW Sixth and Morrison in 1854 for $500 in legal fees, and in the late 1880s he planned the Marquam Building and the adjoining Marquam Grand Opera House at a cost of $600,000. The eight-story office building opened in 1892 and was called Portland's first modern office building. Marquam lost it to foreclosure in 1908; Henry Pittock bought it in 1912 and, after part of it collapsed during remodeling, had A. E. Doyle demolish it for the American Bank Building.

The Marquam Building's name honours Philip Augustus Marquam, who acquired the corner lot at SW Sixth and Morrison in 1854 as payment of $500 in legal fees. He later planned the adjoining Marquam Grand Opera House, which opened in 1890 and was managed early on by future Portland mayor George Luis Baker. The opera house, later the Orpheum and Baker Theatre, was demolished in 1922.

The Marquam Building no longer stands: it was demolished after a partial collapse during its 1912 renovation, and the American Bank Building now occupies the corner of SW 6th Avenue and Morrison Street. Visitors should not confuse it with the surviving Marquam Building at 2501 SW 1st Avenue.

Philip Marquam avoided high local brick prices by opening his own brickyard and shipping cheaper bricks from San Francisco for the building. A letter to The Architect and Engineer later blamed the 1912 collapse on this soft, poor-quality masonry, calling the disaster a blessing.